Sunday, August 19, 2012

Concern troll says "Aww, diddums"

Fulham manager Martin Jol was upset that Fulham fans were chanting against Clint Dempsey during yesterday's big win over Norwich. Gosh, I wonder what compelled them.

And while we're lowering ourselves to patronize this nasty turnabout in attitudes toward Deuce, let's go back to the coach for an admission: "To say he refused to play is probably a bit harsh... "

Yeah. And by 'a bit harsh' you of course mean 'utter crap'. As if the player would refuse to be in the team, decide to train all this time with the reserves and the club just goes along as if being led by the nose.

10 comments:

It was nothing short of disappointing to hear that, among other anti-American chants yesterday. Jol has no one to blame but himself. The only downside to what was otherwise an absolutely spectacular day at the Cottage. COYW!

If there's one thing I've learned from hanging around on club messageboards of various Premier League clubs, it's that some of Fulham's forum fans will absolutely *never* be happy. They are extremely negative and will turn on a player or a coach in a heartbeat. Compare that to the Everton forums I've been on and it's night and day. They're much more friendly, positive (But still critical), etc.

This is just my experience, and I'm sure other people have had different takes on it, but I thought it was interesting.

Sweet. I'm getting the feeling that Clint is getting a complete screw-job here from Jol/Fulham. I also sort of think Liverpool has dropped the ball and were scared off after hearing Fulham's price, but that they haven't necessarily made their current intentions clear to Clint. I hope that when the smoke clears, Clint is learning to speak Italian.

Because speculation is fun (and all we have right now), allow me to do so. Let's start with what has been confirmed as fact: Dempsey was offered a new contract last spring, and he declined to sign it. He didn't reject it; just said, "let's see what happens this summer." He publicly expressed his deepest gratitude to the Fulham faithful for the opportunities and support they gave him. He said he wanted "one day" to play CL soccer, while stopping short of explicitly saying "next season."

We know now that he didn't travel with Fulham in pre-season and has trained alone. He missed the first game.

There's also one fact in the "unconfirmed but likely" category: that Clint rejected the allegedly improved contract.

Taking those mostly-confirmed facts as true, there's no way Jol's version is anything but crap. It's more likely that Clint declined the improved contract and that event plus the non-stop transfer rumors ticked off FFC higher ups including the notoriously resentful Jol, who treated the situation like a player "strike" and "punished" Deuce by making him stay in for recess. It is amazing to me that people (FFC fans included, apparently) actually believe that Clint or any player would "strike" or refuse to play unless at a minimum there were an actual offer on the table (and one the player believed was reasonable and should be accepted). It's career suicide.

As for whether LFC or any other clubs actually made offers, BR confirmed he enquired. FFC probably told them Clint was not for sale or insisted on a huge number. So while there may have been no formal offers, there's likely been plenty of discussion. The long and short is that this is coming down to FFC being stingy and bitter about losing their star. It's a shame they can't be more professional, but what can we expect from a club whose owner put a statue of Michael Jackson outside their stadium?

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